caa a22 4500 386344663 CHVBK 20180307111807.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198910 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0017383500029764 doi S0017383500029764 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0017383500029764 Horsfall Nicholas ‘The uses of Literacy' and the Cena Trimalchionis: II [Elektronische Daten] [Nicholas Horsfall] Trimalchio's whole household and way of life is presented to us as though it were a stage-show, or so Petronius implies through Encolpius' remarks, strategically and thematically placed (cf. above, 83-4) at the opening. Still marvelling at the musicality of Trimalchio's household (cf. 197-8), he comments ‘you'd think it was the chorus of a pantomime, not the dining room of a paterfamilias' (31.7); a page later (33.5) a basket of straw with a wooden hen is brought in and while two slaves search the straw for ‘eggs' (to music) Trimalchio turns to look at his ‘show' (hanc scaenam). Trimalchio himself sings a number from the mime Laserpiciarius (35.6) and mangles the songs of Menecrates (73.3, cf. 197). He claims (55.5, above, 80) to recite verses by Publilius Syrus, composer of mimes; his comoedi perform Atellan farce (53.13, above, 80) and Habinnas' slave executes a horrid medley of Atellana and Virgil (68.5, cf. above, 79). If we compare these references with those to music (197-8) simply in terms of bulk and scale, the theatre appears substantially less important, though we may note that all the references except the last (68.5) do refer to Trimalchio himself or to his slaves, thus perhaps serving as a deliberate element on Petronius' part to characterize and distinguish him. Copyright © The Classical Association 1989 Greece and Rome Cambridge University Press 36/2(1989-10), 194-209 0017-3835 36:2<194 1989 36 GAR https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017383500029764 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017383500029764 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Horsfall Nicholas NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Greece and Rome Cambridge University Press 36/2(1989-10), 194-209 0017-3835 36:2<194 1989 36 GAR CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence SWISSBIB 386344663 BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge